Posted 19 February 2008 - 02:32 PM

We now have the ability to embed a PDF document in a low overhead Flash component called Scribd. This is a very cool service that lets you upload any PDF, Word, or other document and it is converted into their format with unlimited storage.

I think this will be great for the Map Gallery. I have set up a private CartoTalk account so your documents will not be accessible outside of Cartotalk. As long as your PDF is on the web somewhere you can embed it in a post by using the PDF tag. Eventually I will add a way to embed Scribd documents that you may have already uploaded.

By using the PDF tag there is no limit (other than upload times) to the size of a document you can post.

Posted 19 February 2008 - 10:44 PM

Well, the PDF is still stored wherever you put it but once it has been converted by Scribd, it is on there server, so you are right that it doesn't "cost" CartoTalk anything. In fact once it is converted by Scridb, you can take the PDF down from wherever.

For CartoTalk it is good, it saves the hassle of having pdf attachments, but in general I don't see such a big point with it, you can embed adobe reader as well.

My experience with Acrobat Reader stability and speed has been less then stellar (especially embedded). This loads way faster and only relys on people having Flash which is way more prevalent than Reader. Not to mention free storage at Scribd.

Posted 20 February 2008 - 01:19 PM

Are there any forgoing of any sort of "rights" to the distribution of this imagery once Scribd gets their mitts on it? Does it become "public domain," such that anyone can distribute and link to it?

If you use Sribd for your own purposes you can mark documents as public or private and you can set various rights such as normal copyright, creative commons, etc. You can also set a document to be non-printable.

Documents uploaded through CartoTalk are marked as private som no one can view them other than through CartoTalk.

I just discovered the service yesterday, so I am certainly not a spokesperson for them. There may be other issues I haven't come accross yet.

frax

Posted 19 August 2008 - 05:45 AM

Is this feature in place? I have been playing with Scribd lately, and I find the pdf > iPaper engine very shaky - I find it hard to pinpoint what a pdf can have/do to be compatible, most of the time the conversion just fails, and one has to resort to rasterising the pdf and uploading that - which loses part of the point...

Posted 19 August 2008 - 01:00 PM

Is this feature in place? I have been playing with Scribd lately, and I find the pdf > iPaper engine very shaky - I find it hard to pinpoint what a pdf can have/do to be compatible, most of the time the conversion just fails, and one has to resort to rasterising the pdf and uploading that - which loses part of the point...

It doesn't seem to handle complex PDFs very well. It looks like the sample I posted originally is broken, which is weird, because you'd think that once it was in their DB it would work forever. Seems like they have some work to do still on this service.